Pasta and Sandwiches Now on the Menu at Cucina

It’s tough to get a date of when Cucina, the Italian eatery located at 565 Salmon Brook St. in Granby, officially opened.

Yes, the restaurant, which also serves as the new home base of the New York Pizza Delivery truck, opened its doors in late August, offering primarily pizza and wings during dinner hours Tuesday through Sunday.

Since, then, however, the restaurant, owned by Granby resident Frank Lucca and helped run by general manager and pizza guru Jeff Fleming, has slowly rolled out new items including sandwiches and, most recently, pasta dishes last week.

“We’ve had a few ups and downs,” said Fleming, noting the power outages in early November were responsible for the restaurant losing its refrigerated food twice. “We’ve had a few setbacks along the way, but it’s been busy on the weekends as word gets out.”

While the new items are becoming increasingly popular - everything is made from scratch, according to Lucca, including the bread for the sandwiches - the heart of the business is the Brooklyn-style pizza that Fleming made a name for himself with the NYPD truck.

“I would never have done this without Jeff’s pizza,” said Lucca, a former Ensign Bickford employee who has lived in far-flung places like Chile and Colombia to, in his words, “blow things up. Now I just want to cook.”

“I’ve traveled all over the world, and Jeff makes some of the best pizza,” Lucca said. “He’s very quality oriented.”

Lucca, who was looking for a second career closer to home, grew up in a family that has catering and restaurants in its veins. Indeed, Lucca’s brother, for example, has opened 200 Outback Steakhouses nationwide.

So, when Lucca met Fleming while Lucca coached Fleming’s kids in youth sports, the two decided to go into a venture together.

“It’s nice being two minutes from home,” Lucca said.

While the restaurant is small in square footage - it holds about 60 people comfortably - Lucca has big plans for the place that's name is the Italian word for “kitchen.”

Indeed, Lucca said that he is not as interested in customers having a fine-dining experience as he is about producing quality, affordable meals that people can enjoy at the restaurant or off-site.

Specifically, Lucca said that he wants to have a fleet of four to six catering trucks - what Lucca says is the fastest-growing segment of the restaurant business - that will serve events like weddings and parties as well as make daily visits to constructions sites and the like.

“We want this to be a kitchen where people don’t just come in and eat,” Lucca said. “It’s about the food. It’s not a fine-dining restaurant. You come in on a Friday and Saturday, there are kids walking around.”

Cucina does not have a liquor license, but people can bring bottles of wine to the establishment to drink with dinner.

“People like it,” Lucca said. “You can come in with a group of six or eight people and get out of here spending 60 bucks.”

Pizzas come in small, medium, large and extra large, ranging from $9.99 to $14.99, with each topping adding $1 or $2 depending on the size of the pizza. Specialty pizzas - such as white, white clam and chicken Florentine - run between $13.99 and $20.99

The sandwiches cover the basics (meatball, sausage, chicken and eggplant Parmesan, ham and cheese, etc.) go for $6.95, while the salads and antipasto are all under $8.

The pasta dishes, mostly marinara and alfredo concoctions, start at $11.50.

In the future, sooner rather than later, according to Lucca, the restaurant will expand its hours to include lunch and, hopefully, have pancake breakfasts on Sundays.

The major bugaboo, Lucca said, is that he is using some equipment from the old establishment that occupied the space, and he and his crew have been working feverishly to get things up and running. Once the griddle is ready, breakfast will be served, Lucca said.

Still, people swear by what IS offered on the menu, almost to the point of sounding cultish.

“My children make sure I go here now,” Granby resident John Fede said while picking up two pizzas on Wednesday evening. “They know when I call and ask what they want to do for dinner, they say, ‘Go to NYPD.’ It’s awesome.”

Currently, the restaurant is open Tuesday through Saturday from 4 to 9 p.m. and on Sundays from 4 to 8 p.m. There is a military discount: 20 percent off for soldiers in uniform and 50 percent off for soldiers who are deployed and are returing home or are on leave. For more information, call 860-653-7663.